


Fear and Trembling

by continuum



Series: Skyrim Sidestories [1]
Category: Christian Bible (Old Testament), Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fear and Trembling
Genre: Gen, Parable, Søren Kierkegaard - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-21
Updated: 2014-06-21
Packaged: 2018-02-05 14:06:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1821106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/continuum/pseuds/continuum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And Talos said, “Take Ulfric, thine only son, whom thou lovest, and climb thee to the Throat of the World and make of him there an offering upon the mountain.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fear and Trembling

On the day that his young son first gave voice to the Gift of Kyne, the Bear of Eastmarch, Jarl of Windhelm, withdrew into the Temple of Talos, and there knelt before the altar of the God of Man and prayed for guidance. 

He knelt a long time, and prayed with many words on his tongue and many more words in his heart. And when at last he finished and looked up into the stern helmed face of Talos, he beheld that a beam of sun from the window fell upon the statue, and that a wind stirred the leaves of a tree outside that window, so that the shadows were cast across the face of Talos, and it seemed to the Jarl that those stone lips moved.

And the voice of Talos spoke in his ear, and if any other man were at that moment in the Temple, he would have heard only silence. And the voice of Talos called him by name.

The Bear of Eastmarch replied, prostrated himself before the God and opened himself to the spirit and he said, “Here I am.”

And Talos said, “Take Ulfric, thine only son, whom thou lovest, and climb thee to the Throat of the World and make of him there an offering upon the mountain.”

And the Jarl took these words with him out of the Temple, and he took them with him to his night’s uneasy sleep, but he spoke nothing of them to his wife. And on the next day the Jarl rose early in the morning and saddled his horse, and took two of his men with him, and Ulfric his son, who was scarcely seven years of age.

And as they rode, with the boy Ulfric ahorse safely before his father, and enveloped in his arms, the Jarl’s eyes were the whole journey downcast.

But on the morning of the third day the Bear lifted up his eyes, and saw that the mountain towered above them. And so he left his men with the horses in the town that was the foot of the Throat of the World, and he took the small hand of his son in his, and together they set foot upon the Seven Thousand steps. And he said to those who watched, “I and the lad will climb to the top of the mountain, and we will give worship to Talos, and come back to you.”

As they climbed the Seven Thousand steps, father and son stopped and gave worship at the ten shrines placed along the way, and at every shrine there was a secret prayer in the father’s heart in addition to the prayer on his lips. As they climbed the Seven Thousand steps, the father told his son the story of Ysmir, called Emperor Tiber Septim, called Talos the God of Man. He told his son the story of the Dragons who ruled all the world and enslaved man, and the gift of the Divines which gave men Voices with which to do battle against them and slay them. He told his son that in these days very few were granted such a gift, and none since Talos, and that to Him all of man owes love greater than any other love in the world. And as he spoke the father wept, and the boy Ulfric wept to see his father weep, though he did not understand why.

At the top of the Seven Thousand steps they came upon a fortress, and the Jarl did pound upon its doors, but they were closed to him. And he looked about him, and there, not far from the doors, stood silent and solemn an altar and a statue. So the father spoke to his son, and did tell him to lie upon the altar beneath the stone sword, and together they prayed.

They prayed a long time, with their voices and with their hearts, and when at last the father finished and looked up into the stern helmed face of Talos, the statue remained stone and did not move nor speak. And so the father stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

And the boy Ulfric looked up into the stern helmed face of his father, and the knife upraised, and he cried out in prayer, and begged of him not to obey the cruel demand of the God of Man and not to end his young life. But his father did not move nor speak but held the knife above the boy’s chest like a stone sword.

And then his father’s lips moved, and they moved stiffly, and his father said, “Why then do you pray to me? Do you suppose that _I_ am your father? Do you suppose that this sacrifice is the desire of Talos? No! It is _my_ desire!”

And then the boy Ulfric cried out in prayer once again, but this time he looked up into the stern helmed face of his Father, and he prayed, “Oh Talos, please help me, please save me from the blade of the man I thought to be my loving father. If I have no father on Earth, be Thou my Father!”

And Talos, God of Man, answered the boy’s prayer and also the father’s, for in that moment the doors to the fortress opened, and out stepped an angel in the form of an ancient man robed in grey, and he spoke with the Voice of Talos. And he said, “Lay not thy hand upon the lad, for in thy willingness to give him in sacrifice, thou forsaketh him as thine blood and heir. He is the blood of the dragon and the heir of Talos.”

And the boy Ulfric rose from the altar and ran to the angel of grey, and his father in a low voice said to himself so that the others would not hear, “Oh Talos, I thank Thee. After all, it is better for him to believe that I am a monster than that he should lose faith in Thee. For surely, had my hand faltered, he would have seen that Thy glory is not worthy of the greatest sacrifices of this world, and he would not have seen that Thy mercy is greater than the mercy of any man.”

And the Bear of Eastmarch climbed down the mountain alone, and he returned to his city and his throne, and to the sorrow of his wife. And from that time on as he grew old with neither son nor heir nor wife, but with only the love he bore for Talos in his heart, he could not forget that the God of Man had required this of him. And his eyes were darkened and he knew joy no more.

It was not until his city, and his province, and the whole of his country was crumbling around him, it was not until every father across the land echoed the sacrifice of the son in holy war, that the Bear of Eastmarch comprehended his sin. Then he returned to the Temple of Talos, where he had not set foot since the statue had spoken, and he threw himself upon his face and prayed to the God to forgive him his sin, that he had been willing to offer Ulfric, that the father had forgotten his duty toward the son. But the statue made no reply.

When all the sons across the land rose to fight and to die for Talos, and so too did the fathers, and when at the last the Bear of Markarth lay on his sickbed, dying without forgiveness, his thoughts turned once again to wondering how it could be, that it were a sin to be willing to offer to Talos the best thing that he possessed, that for which he would many times have given his life. If it was not a sin, then in now begging the God’s forgiveness he showed the true weakness of his faith and the poverty of his love. But if it was a sin, then he could not not comprehend how it might be forgiven. For what sin could be more dreadful?

And after ten years Ulfric, who grew from a boy into a man in the fortress of angels in the heavens rather than in the fortress of men on earth, Ulfric descended from the mountain and in the ripening of time he would sacrifice a thousand sons on the altar of Talos. And in one final letter smuggled from a prison where he contemplated the sins of others, Ulfric granted the forgiveness that Talos could not, for the sins of the father.

And what, now, of the sins of the son?


End file.
